


False Dawn

by the_dragongirl



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Darth Vader is a very twisted person, Fix-It, Gen, I just really needed to write this after watching that episode okay?, Spoilers for Season 2 finale, Vaderkin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 06:56:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6413521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_dragongirl/pseuds/the_dragongirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A follow up to Twilight of the Apprentice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	False Dawn

She awakens in an unfamiliar medbay to the incessant beeping of monitors and the stink of bacta.

It is, she reflects, better than she might have expected. After all, from what she last remembers, she probably shouldn’t be waking up at all. The Sith Temple had been collapsing around her, and already the Force and her own sheer bloody stubbornness had been all that kept her from collapsing. That fall moments before had done a number on her. She tasted blood on her lips, and felt the grind of broken ribs in her chest, even as she struggled to defend against Vader (against ANAKIN, oh, sweet Force!) It had been almost a relief, when she felt a piece of the debris strike the back of her head, and the world fall away.

The fact that she is conscious and in relatively little pain should, therefore, be a pleasant surprise. As she struggles to take in her surroundings, however she can’t help but feel that something is terribly wrong. It’s not just that the medbay is unfamiliar to her; as a covert operative for the Rebellion, Ahsoka is all too accustomed to waking up in unfamiliar medical facilities. But still, it’s as though a part of her is still asleep, or maybe the world around her isn’t quite real, or…

And then she realizes. The Force. She can’t feel the Force.

The monitors shriek as her heart rate skyrockets and her chest tightens. She can’t seem to take in a full breath, and it doesn’t even feel particularly important, because the Force is gone, oh Sith Hells, HOW IS THE FORCE GONE?

The door to the medbay whooshes open, and ~~Vader~~ ~~Anakin~~ VADER sweeps into the room. His helmeted head turns toward the monitors, and then back towards Ahsoka. Then he strides to the side of her bed, and seizes her by the shoulders.

“Calm yourself,” he orders, in that deep, hollow voice that sounds nothing like the Master she remembers. She notices with the small part of her mind not totally given to panic that his helmet has been repaired, and his face is once more concealed entirely. “You are in no danger here, but you are still recovering from your injuries, and you must breath.”

“The...the Force,” she gasps. “I can’t…”

“I have injected you with a suppressant,” he interrupts, “and fitted you with an inhibitor. Now, _breath_.”

There is more in his words that compels obedience than merely a commanding tone. She may not be able to touch to Force right now, but she can still identify a Force suggestion when she hears one. It doesn’t actually work, but the shock of having ~~Anakin~~ someone attempt to use a Force suggestion on her breaks through the panic.

“You...” she croaks, as she fights to bring her breathing back under control. “You said if I didn’t leave you, I would die.”

“Ahsoka Tano IS dead,” he says. “I have destroyed her, just as I did her Master. Her Jedi companions will have felt her presence in the Force cease to be. Perhaps those little rebel friends of hers are mourning her even now.  But you, my Apprentice..” One of his hands strokes her upper arm, and Ahsoka is caught between the instinct to relax into the touch of her one-time Master, and the urge to shudder away from contact with a Sith.

“Your new life is just beginning. Anakin Skywalker once swore to his student that he would never let anything harm her. He was weak, and a fool, and could not keep that promise. But I have powers he could never dream of. I can teach you that power. I can make you strong, strong enough that no one can ever hurt you again”

She stares at him, in a horrified sort of understanding. Because that...actually sounds like something Anakin would say. It is horrible, and grotesque, but...not unlike him. He was always willing to bend or even break the rules of the Jedi to protect the people he cared about. Is this how he was led into the Darkness? Is this how he became this twisted thing before her?

“What about your Master?” she asks at last. “Everyone knows you serve the Emperor. I can’t imagine he’ll be willing to let me live, no matter what you may promise.”

“My Master...does not yet know of your survival,” he says. “This facility is one I have kept from him, and I reported that Ahsoka Tano perished in the destruction of the Malachor Temple.  Which is true enough. When I have completed your training, we shall find you a new name. And when I bring you before him, my Master will be pleased, for no paltry scraps of information on a few scattered Jedi can be half so valuable as a servant of your abilities. You shall have a place at his right hand, as I do, and the galaxy will kneel before you.”

Ahsoka has no idea what to say to that. Because that is NOT the Anakin she knew. Her old Master would never had wanted her live as anyone’s servant. He would never have tried to make her decisions for her like this. He wanted her to be free, to grow and learn and live on her own terms. She has to bite back a swell of rage, at whoever or whatever managed to turn her kind, honorable Master into...into THIS.

Then she lets out a breath, releasing the anger with it. She is no Jedi, but she knows all too well that giving in to the darker emotions is not a path she ever wants to travel down. After all, she has before her the perfect example of where that path leads.

“I said I wouldn’t leave you again,” she says at last, her words slow and measured. “And I won’t. But you must know that, even though I am no longer a Jedi, and I am never going to be a Sith, either. And I will never serve the Empire.”

He lets out a strange hissing noise that, if it were anyone else, she might almost think was a sigh. “You may believe that now, but you will learn better in the days to come.” He releases her shoulders and steps back, and she can’t decide whether or not she is relieved. “But for now, you must rest, and heal. We can begin your new training when your body is restored.”  

He looks down at her, and she can feel his eyes burning into her through the dark lenses of his helmet. “After all, we have plenty of time.”

As he turns and stalks out of the medbay, she wonders if that is a threat, or a promise.


End file.
